A mikveh is a bath used for the purpose of full-body ritual immersion in Judaism. The mikveh's present-day main uses are by women after menstruation, by men (customary only), for conversion to Judaism, and for food utensils.
“In Orthodox Judaism these regulations are steadfastly adhered to, and consequently the mikveh is central to an Orthodox Jewish community, and they formally hold in Conservative Judaism as well. The existence of a mikveh is considered so important in Orthodox Judaism, that an Orthodox community is required to construct a mikveh before building a synagogue, and must go to the extreme of selling Torah scrolls or even a synagogue if necessary, to provide funding for the construction” (from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh)
“A mikveh must, according to the classical regulations, contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized person; based on a mikveh with the dimensions of 3 cubits long, 1 cubit wide, and 1 cubit deep, the necessary volume of water was estimated as being 40 seah of water. The exact volume referred to by a seah is debated, and classical rabbinical literature only specifies that it is enough to fit 144 eggs; most Orthodox Jews use the stringent ruling of the Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, according to which one seah is 14.3 litres, and therefore a mikveh must contain approximately 575 litres. This volume of water could be topped up with water from any source, but if there were less than 40 seahs of water in the mikveh, then the addition of 3 or more pints of water from an unnatural source would render the mikveh unfit for use, regardless of whether water from a natural source was then added to make up 40 seahs from a natural source; a mikveh rendered unfit for use in this way would need to be completely drained away and refilled from scratch. There are also classical requirements for the manner in which the water can be stored and transported to the pool; the water must flow naturally to the mikveh from the source, which essentially means that it must be supplied by gravity or a natural pressure gradient, and the water cannot be pumped there by hand or carried. It was also forbidden for the water to pass through any vessel which could hold water within it (however pipes open to the air at both ends are fine) as a result, tap water could not be used as the primary water source for a mikveh, although it can be used to top the water up to a suitable level. To avoid issues with these rules in large cities, various methods are employed to establish a valid mikveh. One is that tap water is made to flow over the top of a kosher mikveh, and through a conduit into a larger pool. A second method is to create a mikveh in deep pool, place a floor with holes over that and then fill the upper pool with tap water. Like this the person dipping is actually “in” the pool of rain water. Most contemporary mikvehs are indoor constructions, involving rain water collected from a cistern, and passed through a duct by gravity into an ordinary bathing pool; the mikveh can be heated, taking into account certain rules, often resulting in an environment not unlike a spa.” (from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh)
The present-day mikvehs are based on the Jewish regulations (such as those written in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 201:2) according to which a permissible mikveh constitutes a structure built on the ground or on a building, even on a top floor thereof, since it is connected and is regarded associated to the ground.
Customarily, most mikvehs are dug within the ground, for eliminating the need of climbing thereinto.
Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 201:7 allows as well another embodiment, described as follows. At the first step, a vessel is produced. At the second step, the vessel is hollowed, for avoiding in principle the capability of the vessel to contain the water, thus canceling the facility or instrument thereof. At the third step, the vessel having the hole is fixed to the ground or to the building. At the fourth step the hole is filled and clogged.
This embodiment is cheap and convenient. However, this vessel embodiment actually is not applied, since the permissibility thereof is doubted by other legal scholars (thoroughly discussed in Pithei Thshuva on Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 201:7). The consideration of this doubt is that said hollowing is not sufficiently significant, and that the vessel remains a “tool” (the Jewish regulation term is “Kli”) receiving impurity in the aspect of a mikveh.
Thus, constructing a mikveh is a very expensive matter, such that a mikveh is normally a public building.
All the methods described above have not yet provided satisfactory solutions to the problem that constructing a mikveh is a very expensive issue.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for making the issue of constructing a mikveh more easily available and inexpensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the above-mentioned and other problems of the prior art.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.